B cells

Why do our immune systems weaken over time? Why are people over the age of 60 more susceptible to life-threatening infections and many forms of cancer? There’s no one answer to these questions—but scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have uncovered an important mechanism behind this phenomenon.

Reporting in the latest issue of the journal Nature, UCSF’s Dr. Emmanuelle Passegué and her team describe how blood and immune cells must be continually replenished over the lifetime of an organism. As that organism ages the complex cellular machinery that churns out new cells begins to falter. And when that happens, the body can become more susceptible to deadly infections, such as pneumonia.

“We have found the cellular mechanism responsible for the inability of blood-forming cells to maintain blood production over time in an old organism, and have identified molecular defects that could be restored for rejuvenation therapies.”

The research team, which examined this mechanism in old mice, focused their efforts on hematopoetic stem cells—a type of stem cell that is responsible for producing new blood and immune cells. These stem cells are present throughout an organism’s lifetime, regularly dividing to preserve their own numbers.

But in an aging organism, these cells’ ability to generate new copies is not as good as it used to be. When the research team dug deeper they found a key bit of cellular machinery, called the mini-chromosome maintenance helicase, breaks down. When that happens, the DNA inside the cell can’t replicate itself properly—and the newly generated cell is not running on all cylinders.

One of the first things that these old stem cells lose as a result is their ability to make B cells. B cells, a key component of the immune system, normally make antibodies that fight infection. As B cell numbers dwindle in an aging organism, so too does their ability to fight infection. As a result the organism’s risk for contracting dangerous illnesses skyrockets.

This research, which was funded in part by CIRM, not only informs what goes wrong in an aging organism at the molecular level, but also points to new targets that could keep these stem cells functioning at full capacity, helping promote so-called ‘healthy aging.’ As Passegué added:

“Everybody talks about healthier aging. The decline of stem-cell function is a big part of age-related problems. Achieving longer lives relies in part on achieving a better understanding of why stem cells are not able to maintain optimal functioning.”

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